Alternative propulsion methods are always interesting just because our lives our dominated by so very few. If anything just sit and watch the beauty in it’s movements.
From NewScientist:
It’s not a bird or a plane: it’s an unusual flying object that propels itself by flipping inside out. Created by engineers at Festo in Esslingen, Germany, the floating band filled with helium takes on different shapes while expanding and contracting to generate thrust and move through the air.
The design is based on the inverted cube shape discovered by inventor and mathematician Paul Schatz. By dissecting a cube into three parts, two star-shaped units can be produced at either end with an invertible belt in the middle section which is the same shape as the flying band. The system reproduces the entire structure: it opens to release the band while the ends remain on the ground as a docking station.
The flying object itself is made up of six identical prisms filled with helium, held together by a carbon-fibre framework. Three motors drive the motion coordinated by a tiny onboard computer, pre-programmed to replicate the inversion sequence. Using a smartphone, a person on the ground can guide the object around a room, which will be demonstrated on Monday at a trade show in Hanover, Germany.
The firm still hasn’t come up with a specific use for inversion-driven propulsion. The mechanics of automated systems are typically based on rotational or linear motion to drive, for example, motors or grippers, but inversion is seldom used in designs. The company has now launched a competition challenging students in Germany to suggest a functional idea that could be implemented in an industrial environment.
I came across Sagaki Keita’s work and thought it was some of the most amazingly psychedelic art I’d seen in some time. The precision on the macro scale down to the seemingly haphazard and spontaneous nature of the micro is amazing. I’m always a bit taken a back that he doesn’t lose his way when creating these pieces.
The interview was done via email. Sagaki speaks little english and thus the text has some hiccups here and there. I’ve kept it as is, with little alteration as not to misconstrue or misrepresent Mr. Keita’s words.
I don’t post much electronic on here, I don’t know why not, but just haven’t I’m definitely a fan of the genre. One of the guys who always wow me with each successive album is Amon Tobin (I even went on a purchase spree to fill gaps in my catalog). Found sound paired with his ingenuity behind the boards makes an Amon Tobin something else to experience.
Check out his track by track commentary on ISAM here.
I’m a bit of an inforgraphic nut, so when these came on my radar I knew I had to repost these. These must have been a painstaking endeavor to complete, but they turned out better than the creator could have hoped. To see more head over to Pattern Matters.
About Pattern Matters:
AUGMENTING THE ROLE OF PATTERN IN GRAPHIC DESIGN THROUGH TACTILE EXPLORATION
Pattern Matters is a graphic design-based project inquiring on possible ways to augment the role of pattern by looking into the design process and tactile exploration through pattern making. It demonstrates the way of how this design element of pattern can be adopted differently on various platforms in graphic design. The main objective of this project is to inspire designers to look at pattern in every possible angles. Pattern Matters also aims to demonstrate that pattern is a crucial form of design element in graphic design which eventually evident that pattern is not merely a decorating tool.
When I ran across this dude’s work, my mind was blown. Sagaki Keita‘s work is some sort of intricate mess. The attention to detail on the macro and micro scale is outstanding, but its made up of these wayward figures of animals, factories, villages, protozoa, flowers, and John Lennon.
This is one of the most awe inspiring thing I’ve seen in a minute. I”m not a overtly religious, but I can see finding God being relatively easy in a place like this.
I ran across Scott Campbell’s work and thought it was definitely worth sharing. The intricacies of the work and the steady hand it must have taken to create them is astounding.
Sitting firmly at the intersection of fashion and design lies Diego Diaz. Having come across his work, below I was struck by the boldness of the work and immediately Levi Van Veluw’s work came to mind. As Diego uses the body and particularly the head as his canvas to explore shape, texture, and identity.
Designer Carnovsky has put together a very interesting concept to interior design. A triple printed wallpaper consisting of 3 layered images, each in either red, green, or blue. The effect is stunning, especially when bathed in either red, green, or blue light (below).
